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NetSquared enables social benefit organizations to leverage the tools of the social web.
CivicSpace | Zack Rosen, Founder and Director
What's *really* new on the Web, as opposed to buzzwords and soundbites?:
- Better content on the web and better independent channels for distributing and promoting it (blogosphere).
- Open Source and Open Standards are gaining real traction in businesses (IBM, Apple, Google)
- Money (VC money, Ad revenue money)
Which tools best embody the new opportunities from your point of view and why?:
- Drupal: It is the premiere web platform for building community on the web. It is GPL, LAMP, and supports a burgeoning base of developers and businesses around it.
- Ad revenue services such as AdSense. It is now very straightforward to produce meaningful revenue from your content on the web.
Who's doing the best work with the new tools (technically or in terms of social benefit or both)?:
In terms of social benefit: Civi* (CiviCRM / CivicSpace community) - we are building the first widely adopted and developed Open Source public sector technological infrastructure.
What's the bad news? What are the greatest barriers preventing web-based technology from producing social change?:
The business case for open-source technology providers for the public sector is untested. There will be a lot of success but also some failures.
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